#PSA: You Can Now Unlock Your Phone For Free If You Are Canadian

As of today, cellphone unlocking is now free in Canada. Prior to this, carriers such as Rogers, Telus and Bell could charge you $50 to unlock your phone. That’s no longer the case. On top of that, devices must also be sold unlocked as well.

So, why should you care? It’s simple. If your device is unlocked, you can take it to any carrier and get service for it. Which means if your current carrier isn’t meeting your needs or has horrible customer service for example, you can go elsewhere easier. On top of that, you can switch phones at will without being forced into a new plan. Something that really irked my wife when she got her iPhone 6 as she was forced to dump a really good plan for a crappy one. Finally it means that when you go overseas, you can use a local SIM card at a much lower price point rather than be charged the rather than be hosed by cell phone carriers for roaming. All of this is great for the consumer, but likely bad news for cell phone providers as they will now have to up their game if they want to retain customers.

That’s all good. But it does get better. There are other changes that go into effect today that should make life easier for Canadian cell phone users. You can find out about those changes here.

I’m thinking that Rogers, Telus and Bell are flooded with calls from people asking for their phones to be unlocked. If you tried to get your phone unlocked today, I’d appreciate a comment below describing what your experience was like.